Hambor
The village of Hambor was the seat of a barony of the same name ruled from Castle Averill by the patriarch of House Averill. It was sat upon the southern coasts of the Hinterlands, north of the Bay of Stars, at the end of the road stretching south from Ayles and Haven, to the west of the Western Weald. Hambor supported a small monastery simply called Hambor Priory that became a cultist den in 5E.1522. The lands of Hambor also included Haven to the north and the Hambor Forest nearby to the west, which held an elven ruin from the days of Ilys Sol called Silfal, supposedly the site of a portal to the Feywild. In 5E.1522, a chimera came to roost in the Hambor Forest, and the local Stinkhand tribe of goblins lead by Gedzem came to worship the monstrosity. To the east, at the outskirts of the Western Weald, the Three-Tusk tribe of orcs established a village, fleeing the mountains in lieu of the rise of war in the Savage Mountains. Hambor was founded in 4E.1046 by Sir Murdoch Averill to watch over the Sea of Saints under the reign of King Bran I shortly before the death of the King and the arrival of the Weeping Plague. Murdoch was a ward in the court of King Ardal II; in 4E.1032, Ardal II died, and Bran I took the throne amidst rumors that Murdoch Averill was in fact Ardal II's bastard. When the Weeping Plague arrived, fearing that the rumored royal bastard might interfere with the claim of King Bran I's heir to the throne should the King fall ill, Albin advised King Bran I to grant Murdoch the barony of Hambor, leading to the construction of Castle Averill and the founding of House Averill. The death of Murdoch's birth mother, Lady Averill, to the weeping plague emboldened the new baron to focus on spreading his line rather than challenging Bran II as a son of his grandfather's mistress. The village of Haven was incorporated into the new barony. Murdoch Averill's grandson, Baron Martin Averill, fought in Gothian's Rebellion and became known under the moniker of the Knight of the Tower for his house's banner and the great and heavy hammer he carried into battle. Hambor was besieged twice during the war by the rebels; in the second, Martin Averill famously slew a lord of House Thorne. In 5E.1522, the baron of Hambor and most of its populace were slain by a purge carried out by Nordagon of Deminster of the Fifth Crusade; the village was later attacked by orcs of the Three-Tusk tribe, drawing out Piri Niven. The first event was arranged by the Baron of Hambor's son, while the second was arranged by Faolan the Gray, who likely had a hand in the former occurrence as well, tempting Matthew to patricide. Matthew Averill's own attempts to take over the barony were foiled by the Dawn's Herald, who slew him in the Swineherd Inn; following the baron's death, House Averill fell extinct, and a mercenary called the Iron Regent took over. The Iron Regent initially brought brutally efficient order under his gauntlet, yet soon allied with the Yellow Rose and the Court of Locusts. Hambor fell under the thrall the Cult of the Dark Prince, lead by Baron Ghislain Marcel of Loinnir Village and the Countess Briallen Morvudd herself. The Iron Regent was abandoned by the Court of Locusts, however, and its knight Sir Elric Thrussell decimated the Iron Regency. After the Sunscourge Heresy, and the precipitant Deluge, Hambor sunk into the sea, and the village of Haven was subjugated by the new order. The Dawn's Herald In 5E.1522, the plague came to the Hinterlands in full force as part of a plot organized by the Court of Locusts and the Yellow Rose. Hambor was among the villages infected; when the plague arrived to Hambor, amidst an atmosphere of paranoia about the Infernal Pact brought on by the Fifth Crusade, Faolan the Gray arrived and convinced Matthew Averill as a voice from the shadows that he was meant to rule in luxury forever, and that his village's fall could be reversed. Matthew Averill was readily convinced, and put Faolan's plan into action, informing on his father's court wizard, Morfa, and leading to the village's purge by Nordagon of Deminster. The knights arrived peaceably yet soon that same atmosphere of paranoia lead to the outbreak of battle. The knights slew almost all the village's populace before returning to Deminster, traumatized by the blood on their hands. Matthew Averill had already escaped to Haven; meanwhile, Faolan the Gray took over Castle Averill. He stole an artifact from the local orcs, a Spear of Retribution, sacrosanct to the followers of Gruumsh. Afterwards, he convinced them that the wizard Piri Niven had done so. Piri Niven had already arrived in his Ambulatory Tower, seeking Faolan wherever he heard a whisper of the dark wizard. The two wizards had feuded for centuries, yet this would be their penultimate battle. Piri Niven's Ambulatory Tower was attacked by orcs and the wizard was taken to Faolan in chains, who allowed the orcs to take over the ruins of Hambor. Edmund Trencavel, Piri Niven's apprentice, had long been searching for the wandering wizard, and grew worried when the weeks without mention of the wizard grew longer and longer. The sorcerer set out with an adventuring party composed of the former Heroes of Blackbridge that would later be called the Dawn's Herald. Arriving in Haven, the last place where Piri had been seen, and the gateway to a barony that had fallen to the plague, the adventurers met and made an agreement with Matthew Averill, the pretentious and fat heir apparent to the barony, that they would scout out Hambor and return with a report once it was secure in exchange for 2000 gold coins. Arriving in Hambor, the adventurers witnessed the village's ruined state and soon learned of its sack and the reasons surrounding it, especially the involvement of Baron Matthew Averill. The adventurers ousted the orcs from the castle and Piri's nearby tower, meeting Faolan before learning his true identity and returning to Castle Averill to storm his secret lair and finish off the wizard. Faolan escaped his second meeting with the Dawn's Herald, however, although the adventurers did manage to rescue Piri Niven and retrieve the Spear of Retribution. With the orcs on their side, the heroes easily destroyed Faolan and returned to Haven to confront the Baron about what he had done. The Baron merely gloated and declared to the adventurers that he was untouchable; they soundly proved him wrong, slaying him in the tavern and avenging the people of Hambor; however, shortly afterwards, they escaped and left the village in the hands of the Baron's guards. Cillian Rowan, the most clever of the guards, took the reward meant to be split up by the people of Hambor and the guards and quickly pacified the unruly populace, enslaving the masses and forcing them to rebuild Hambor and its ruined castle. His brutal efficiency gathered the interest of Countess Briallen Morvudd, who seduced the Iron Regent and brought with her her Daughters of Night, the true leaders of the Cult of the Dark Prince, along with several other followers connected to both Graz'zt and the Yellow Rose. Meanwhile, the Dawn's Herald were soon formally charged before the King by the Fifth Crusade with the charge of murder and petty treason against the crown for their slaying of Matthew Averill. The Iron Regent The power of the Iron Regency continued to grow while the adventurers devoted their efforts to securing their acquittal from the crimes they thus stood accused of. Cillian Rowan named his second, Quincy, ruler of Haven. The lords of the Hinterlands moved to attack the Iron Regent yet squabbled too long; eventually, Viscount Malcolm Stenet of Ayles and Lord Doran Proudfoot of Deminster launched an attack to outright failure, leading to a counterattack that saw the Iron Regency conquering Ayles and taking House Stenet as hostages. The Iron Regency would continue to threaten the Hinterlands while Castle Averill was rebuilt into the Iron Keep, while the Royal Army was trapped by quarantine while Agrawel remained free of the Rasping Pox. The arrival of the plague to Agrawel meant the King was unchained; he strode forth to Westmoor after the village successfully held off an attack lead by Cillian Rowan himself. Meanwhile, the oppressed and faithless townsfolk turned ever more to darkness. The intervention of the Royal Army lead to a long series of encounters ending with a battle fought in Ayles leading to the apparent deaths of Lord Hudson Rayne and Sir Simon Florian. Ayles was only secured after the intervention of Sir Elric Thrussell, but by then it was too late: the Hags of Bedivere Tor had corrupted the viscount into a dark minion of evil, and he could only be contained by Elric within his own stronghold while House Thrussell moved on and the King returned. Sir Elric lead his armies to destroy the Iron Regent once and for all before Hambor itself was destroyed in the Deluge. The King returned to Agrawel not long before the city celebrated the fall of the Iron Regent, which itself occurred not long before the city's own fall.